New London area wildlife

Hunters, trappers and wildlife watchers in a six-county area of southwestern Minnesota benefit from the management, habitat and oversight work of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources' New London area wildlife office.

Area Supervisor Cory Netland along with two full-time and one part-time staff oversee a work area that covers more than 2.9 million acres of public and private land in Chippewa, Kandiyohi, Meeker, Renville, Redwood and Brown counties. The area includes 123 state Wildlife Management Areas totaling more than 26,000 acres; 18 islands; a state game refuge; two waterfowl refuges; two migratory waterfowl feeding and resting areas; two state-designated wildlife lakes; and five other lakes managed intensively for wildlife.

Planning and completing prescribed burns on more than a dozen WMA sites; removing trees on more than a dozen sites; harvesting native prairie seed from remnant native prairie sites; seeding native grasses and forbs at many sites; implementing conservation grazing on three WMAs; and controlling noxious weeds at dozens of sites.

Achieving designated wildlife lake status for Middle Lake (Kandiyohi County) and water level management authority for Wood, Hubbard, South Wheeler, North Wheeler and Schultz lakes. Construction of water control structures for Hubbard, Wheeler and Schultz lakes.

Working on animal disease management, including the outbreak of High Pathogenic Avian Influenza in 2015.This involved collecting hundreds of samples in an effort to monitor the health status of wild birds.